The Saint Joseph’s men’s lacrosse team kicked off its home opener with a 10-3 win over VMI on Saturday afternoon at Finnesey Field. With the victory, the Hawks start the season 2-1 for the first time since 2000.

“I thought that our guys battled really hard today,” said men’s lacrosse head coach Taylor Wray. “We said that it was going to come down to individual players stepping up and making plays and we did that.”

Josh Cavanaugh (Springfield-Delco) led the Hawks with two goals and two assists while Michael Dougherty (Malvern Prep) and Rob Watts (St. Joseph’s Prep) each had a goal and an assist. Bryan Garrahan (Archmere Academy) scored once.

Mike MacDonald scored three goals and Jeff Froccaro and Tom Schreiber each had two goals and an assist while freshman Ryan Ambler (Abington) had a goal and three assists to lead the Tigers in their opener.

Freshman goalie Matt O’Connor (Lawrenceville School) made six saves for the win.

Denver 18, Lehigh 10

The Mountain Hawks took a 7-6 halftime lead at #11 Denver, but the Pioneers exploded for 12 second-half goalsin the Frontier Face-Off Classic.

Sophomore Dan Taylor posted his first-career hat trick, and an assist for a career-high four points for Lehigh (2-1), while senior David DiMaria dished four assists. Lehigh will return to action in less than 24 hours when it faces an Air Force squad which improved to 3-1 after beating Canisius on Saturday.

A string of nine straight Manhattan goals from the second to fourth quarters doomed Lafayette.

After taking care of Georgetown in overtime in the squad’s season-opener, the Leopards have now dropped two straight to Stony Brook and Manhattan to move to 1-2 on the early season. The victory was Manhattan’s first of the year in its home opener.

Sophomore Sonny Round continued his hot start to 2013 with three goals on the afternoon to move his season total to 11. Classmate Brian Bock (Spring-Ford) added two scores for the Leopards, while juniors John Floyd and Jake Mann notched a goal apiece. Junior goalkeeper Jake Hyatt stopped 11 Jasper shots, while giving up 11 goals for his second loss of the season.